The present invention relates to a forklift truck having a tilting mechanism and a lifting mechanism.
A forklift truck is known which has a lifting mechanism that lifts or lowers a fork of the forklift truck for placing a load on a pallet onto a shelf and removing such load from the shelf. The forklift truck also has a tilting mechanism that tilts the fork frontward and rearward for preventing the load from falling off from the pallet. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-295800 discloses a forklift truck equipped with a tilting mechanism having a leveling pushbutton switch which is operated to cause the fork being tilted to be stopped automatically when the fork reaches its horizontal position. Thus, the truck operator can move the fork to its horizontal position easily without making visual adjustment of the tilt angle of the fork.
In performing the loading and unloading operation while paying attention so as to prevent a load on the pallet from falling in the forklift truck disclosed by the above Publication, however, the operator is required to manipulate the tilt lever for controlling the tilting mechanism and the lift lever for controlling the lifting mechanism. When operating the tilting mechanism and the lifting mechanism simultaneously, the operator is required to manipulate the tilt lever and the pushbutton switch with one hand and to operate the lift lever with the other hand. Thus, the operator is required to manipulate the pushbutton switch while the operator manipulates the two levers simultaneously with both hands and, therefore, the forklift truck suffers from poor workability of the forklift truck. The operator may manipulate each of the levers with one hand to operate the tilting mechanism and the lifting mechanism separately. In this case, the operator is not required to operate the two levers at the same time or the operator may operate the two levers with one hand in turn. However, the operator needs to operate the two levers in turn or in two different steps, so that the problem of poor working efficiency of the forklift truck remains.
The present invention which has been made in light of such problems is directed to providing a forklift truck which improves the working efficiency in operating the lifting mechanism and the tilting mechanism simultaneously.